Marijuana will take center stage at Nevada Legislature

With the Colorado state capitol building visible in the background, partygoers dance and smoke legal, recreationally-sold pot during a festival in April. The issue of legal recreational pot in Nevada may be discussed at the 2015 Nevada Legislature and will be on the Nevada general-election ballot in 2016.(Photo: AP)

Even though the growing and selling of medical marijuana was approved by the 2013 Legislature, the cannabis plant will remain a point of contention and debate at the 2015 Nevada Legislature, lawmakers said.

“I personally think it will (be a big issue),” said state Sen Richard “Tick” Segerblom, D-Las Vegas. “The press will cover it because it is a sexy issue. But the fact is, there are a lot of things we need to do about it.”

Lawmakers are expected to debate legalizing recreational use of marijuana and propose a study on the issues surrounding DUIs, employment drug testing and how it relates to Nevada’s medical marijuana law.

Another bill will seek the legalization of hemp, a cannabis plant that only has traces of the ingredient that gets you high. But hemp takes about half the water needed to grow a rural Nevada favorite — alfalfa — and can be used in various ways such as clothing, oils, carpeting, auto parts, ropes and biofuels.

Another bill would allow the transfer of medical marijuana licenses to be transferred between people. Now, if the licensee dies or the license is revoked, the license goes back to the state.

“It (marijuana) probably gets more attention than it deserves,” Segerblom said. “But the other thing, it is the only thing in the whole state of Nevada where everybody agrees it can be taxed.”

Marijuana and nicotine products can also be consumed by “vaping.” And lawmakers are proposing bills for the 2015 session that deal with taxing the nicotine products used in e-cigarettes and limiting the areas where vaping can take place — much like current restrictions on tobacco smoking.

Recreational marijuana

The road to the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada will travel through the 2015 Legislature.

“The big question,” Segerblom said, “is if we will take up the recreational bill in the first 40 days.”

If lawmakers don’t pass the bill to legalize recreational use of marijuana within the first 40 days of the session — by either voting it down or taking no action — it will automatically go to the voters for consideration.

The Nevada Cannabis Industry Association has already acquired enough signatures to place a proposal on the 2016 Nevada general-election ballot. If approved by voters, it would legalize the use of recreational marijuana in Nevada much like the current laws in Washington state and Colorado.

Based on Republican majorities in both the Assembly and state Senate, it’s likely voters will get the chance to vote on the question in 2016.

“I don’t think it would pass this session,” said Assemblyman Pat Hickey, R-Reno and the 2013 Assembly minority leader. “And even if it did, I doubt that it would get past the veto pen of Gov. (Brian) Sandoval.”

The passage of recreational marijuana would also need a two-thirds vote, since some taxation mechanism would most-likely be attached, some lawmakers said. Nevada law requires a two-thirds vote for all new taxes and tax increases.

Proponents of recreational pot realize that, said Segerblom. Democrats want to see the recreational pot issue on the 2016 ballot, anyway. They think it will help turnout of young, liberal and progressive voters, Segerblom said.

“So if they don’t pass it in the Legislature, it is on the ballot in 2016 and it is going to hurt (Republican) presidential chances, it’s going to hurt their chances of defeating Harry Reid,” Segerblom said, referring the the 2016 re-election bid of the Democratic Nevada senator..

“Frankly it (recreational use of marijuana) is strongly supported by libertarians and a lot of these new (newly-elected) Republicans (in the Legislature) are libertarian orientated,” Segerblom said. “And records show, every time you get marijuana on the ballot, you get a 1 to 2 percent jump in turnout, people who basically vote Democratic.”

Legal ramifications of medical marijuana

After lawmakers approved medical marijuana dispensaries and grow houses in the 2013 session, Hickey is now proposing lawmakers next year approve a studyLegislature about the legal and employment repercussions of that law.

“Questions are going to be raised this session about how is Nevada going to deal with the equivalent of DUIs or driving impaired, with respect to the new marijuana laws, which allows for the use of medical marijuana to treat certain conditions” Hickey said.

“Another big question is how is that going to impact drug testing in the work place, especially in the construction industry, but also in larger areas of the work place,” Hickey said.

Alcohol and some narcotics quickly pass through the blood system, although marijuana can remain in the body for up to three weeks or more — long after its effects are over, studies have shown.

“Employment is predicated on passing a drug test and that is a very big issue, especially in the construction industry because whenever accidents happen, for example, on a job site and someone goes to an emergency room or a doctor, before they are treated, construction workers will typically receive a blood test to determine if they are legally over the alcohol limit,” Hickey said. “So what about marijuana use? How are we going to deal with that in high-risk construction jobs.”

Hickey said he would have wanted more than just a study to look at the impacts of medical marijuana if he were still in a leadership position.

Hickey lost the Assembly GOP caucus’ election as speaker-designate to Ira Hansen to become the Assembly Speaker. Hansen, however, was forced to resign after the Reno-Sparks NAACP called columns he had written for the Sparks Tribune – some 20 years ago – “racist, bigoted and homophobic.”

Commercial hemp bill

Segerblom will present a bill during the 2015 session that would legalize the growing of hemp for commercial and agricultural uses. Hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, Cannabis Sativa. Yet hemp has only trace amounts of the ingredient in marijuana that produces a high in people.

Growing hemp remains illegal in the U.S., although the 2014 Federal Farm Bill passed by Congress allows state departments of agriculture to oversee industrial hemp pilot programs in conjunction with university programs of research and development.

Yet the federal farm bill only allows pilot programs for hemp in states where industrial hemp is legal.

Segerblom points to Kentucky as a state with a industrial hemp pilot program.

“It uses half the water that alfalfa does, so it would be a great product for rural Nevada,” he said.

‘Vaping’ taxes and restrictions

Sen. Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, is proposing laws that would tax and regulate where people people could use e-cigarettes, commonly called “vaping.”

Smith is proposing a state tax on sales of the e-cigarette nicotine product and restrictions on where people could use the products.

Now that Republicans control an 11-to-10 majority in the Senate, the long road from taking a proposal from a bill to a law becomes more difficult for Democrats.

“Since the majority has changed, I need to work with Senate Republicans to make sure we have legislation that everybody is good with,” Smith said. “I would have done that anyway but now I need to make sure they’ll move on whatever legislation we draft. So we are at a bit of a standstill right now.”